So, finally I got a chance to run my car! Well, it wasn't really an autoX event. but rather autoX school organized by BMW-CCA Boston chapter, and I did get a chance to run lots of car which included two EVO X as well. After being avay from events for 5 years it felt good to be there with the helmet on my head.

Tarmac mode was ON with all of the nannies turned OFF and I went out to get the monkey off my back by spinning it or doing something stupid so I could be done with it! Well, the run was pretty ugly to say the least, but I couldn't spin the sucker! It got close at least couple of times, but the rear end just stayed there and decided not to go all the way!

After the monkey got off (and it really did, probably thinking this shoulder is not worth that much) and rest of my runs were getting better and better! Still, lack of traction (running Contis DSW) was making the car really unstable and rear end was moving around like I was on ice! Through the slalom, rear end was coming around a lot, so you had to expect that rear end is going around but it would stop eventually and then go the other side to do the same think. Definitely not an easy way to go fast through those cones that are in straight line, but it was still getting faster and faster. In the long sweepers even a little throttle made the rear end to move so it was like driving a real RWD car! At the end, the best I was able to do was 55.6.

Then, I saw friend going out with his EVO X (also full stock, but with stock Summer tires instead), and I jumped in to see what is going on with his car on different tires! I was astonished!! The amount of grip was like difference between the street and race tires. The sound the tires were making was also R-compound like. It was just beyond believe that difference would be that drastic! I asked to take it for a spin and after just two runs got to 54 sec flat. That was the last run I did that day and I was pretty happy. The only thing that was still spinning in my head was that difference between the two pretty much identical cars aside from the tires.

Then, later that night I remembered my friend was saying something about running it in "Gravel" mode, so his email confirmed that was the case. That at least put some light to the differences in cars behavior and everything got a bit more clear! Even, though, M+S tires have obviously less grip then decent Summer tires, my car was just sliding so much more and it looked like it was even swaying way more then the other car! So, it looks like that Tarmac mode is much more aggressive and makes the rear end to be quite alive! I think this is definitely a good thing, since R-compound tires have way more grip and I think Tarmac mode might be able to un-stick the rear end and still make it alive out there! It could act like adding more rear rebound needed for switch from the tarmac to the concrete!

The car also didn't feel that heavy as I expected and only really slow section would make you more aware of the extra weight, with was pleasant surprise as well.

Another nice thing that I saw was that car was still doing pretty well with relatively sticky tires and extra sway was not an issue as much as I was afraid of. I am sure that more grip can be attained with just an extra degree of camber in the front (still at stock 1 degree at this time). Of course, other typical things like sway bar in the front (rear ones are not allowed to be changed under the Stock rules) should help too. Nice double adjustable high pressure shocks/struts would improve things even more. And at the end, R-compounds would add some as well. Interestingly, neither EVO suffered from lack of brakes and I was amazed on how well they worked in both cars! I do have new pads (2500s) to go on, but for use of the street tires, I am not sure things need to be much better at all. Race rubber might shift this toward better pads, so they will still be installed regardless!

Fedja

 

One more thing that I have noticed with stock Yokos that goes with what friends of mine were saying last year (when they had a chance to torture EVO X MR) was the loss of grip about half way down to road! We had a course going over that painted concrete all the way back and after that section tires didn't feel the same as they were up to that point. Basically, we where getting pretty fast toward the painted area that had three cones turn so I had to use breaks really hard and ever since that spot, I didn't have the same grip as it was there before that.

Also, I have tried to use automatic shifting for the transmission while in Super-Sport mode and things were pretty strange! Lots of weird shifts and falling off the power curve with some shifts into the first. To be truthful, that was on my first run were I run pretty $hity and I didn't try auto mode any more. But, it looked like autoX requirements might be too much for that electronic brain to figure out as well as it does on the road race courses were it clearly dominates the manual mode. The things might get better if driver goes around without doing anything bad, but at this time it looks like not the way to do it when racing at real event.

Fedja